


Everything Has A Voice

by laurelofthestory



Series: The Forgotten Words [2]
Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Abrupt Ending, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Eldritch, Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-21
Updated: 2020-10-21
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:20:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27115283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laurelofthestory/pseuds/laurelofthestory
Summary: The Pale King wakes from his long sleep to find there is a new darkness encroaching on his light. Unfinished oneshot posted for theGood Intentions WIP-fest.
Relationships: The Hollow Knight | Pure Vessel & Hornet
Series: The Forgotten Words [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1979123
Kudos: 21
Collections: Good Intentions: Abandoned and Unfinished WIPs





	Everything Has A Voice

**Author's Note:**

> This is from March 4th, 2019. There are several things I wrote for Hollow Knight that I didn't end up posting, but this one is the most unfinished--a remnant of an AU of an AU I had with some friends where the Shade Lord rises from the Void and starts helping rebuild Hallownest with Hornet and the Hollow Knight's help. Abrupt ending, be warned.
> 
> Check out the [Good Intentions WIP-fest!](https://goodintentionswipfest.tumblr.com/)

The Infection is gone.

The Pale King knows this with absolute certainty, even in sleep meant to last eternal, for the sickly yellow light that’s pressed in on the edges of his dreams trying to blot out his own pure brilliance has finally retreated. It is an odd development, surely, but not an unwelcome one, and he lets himself rest a little longer.

His people are safe, and he is at peace.

However, this only lasts for a time. He is not sure how long it is before something new begins invading the edges of his dreams; something dark, something repulsive and yet almost familiar. The dark presence seems to be feeling around the edges of his consciousness, searching for something--for him? It does not seem to yet know he is the one residing in this pale corner of the dream realm, or if it does, then his mind is too well protected for it to invade.

But still, he can see tendrils of darkness worming their way in, blotting out the light, and that will not do at all. The Wyrm concentrates deeply, building up magic within him until it bursts out in a blinding flash of white that sends the dark tendrils cowering away like frightened animals, scurrying back to the shadows.

It seems there may be a new threat to the kingdom he has built, a new power he’s going to have to quell before it can grow too strong. With the Infection gone, it should at least be safe to return.

This has been a pleasant dream, he muses, but it is time for him to wake.

* * *

Hornet doesn’t remember what it is she’s dreaming about when she is abruptly pulled into Its realm. She just remembers the sky pouring forth with a deep, all-consuming darkness, and being grabbed around the waist and tugged forward, coming face to face with eight luminescent eyes in a dark and empty world. She is confused and lost at first, mind clouded in sleep, until a tendril of void reaches out to brush her forehead and she snaps into lucidity.

“--My Lord.” She sweeps into a deep bow, though a part of her is somewhat frustrated by the summons. She hasn’t gotten very much sleep in the past couple of days, and these meetings never let her wake rested. “For what purpose have you called me?”

Her annoyance is immediately forgotten as It looks at her and she feels Its agitation. This is clearly not a trivial meeting. What she can see of Its outline roils and shifts restlessly as its eyes glow brighter and one set locks with hers. She feels It pressing against her mind, before it bursts forth into a slew of images and emotions that overwhelm her, sending her to her knees with a cry, hands flying to her head.

“P-please, my Lord! Contain yourself!” After the first couple of times It tried to communicate with her in this way, It has been very careful not to flood her like this. Clearly, something is _wrong._

Its eyes dim slightly and It leans away from her, the flood laboriously narrowing to a trickle. She can still feel an overpowering rage coming off of It, but she can at least process what else It’s trying to ‘say’. 

A world of whites and silvers she only half remembers, dreamcatcher patterns hanging in the air marking it as a part of the dream realm. Something locked inside that It could not see. It trying to break through, only to be met with a flash of brilliant white light, before the realm goes empty.

It’s the same sort of light that animates Hornet’s thread, and she doesn’t need to wait for It to project to her an image of the Pale King to understand. A chill races down her carapace.

Asking if It’s sure is pointless, as is being incredulous about the King being alive, so Hornet skips that. “Do you know where he is now?”

It is not sure, It tells her. Though the King’s light blazes brighter than anything in the kingdom, it also obscures him slightly. It can’t go near him, not yet. He is in Hallownest, It says, and It is certain he will find her if he can, but from there…

It trails off into quiet fury, and Hornet knows It wants revenge. After all, It is made up of thousands upon thousands of discarded vessels, all thrown away by this so-called god. Hornet would be lying if she said she didn’t want him to pay for his crimes, too. Perhaps it’s a bit petty on her part, but the king had hurt so very many of her siblings, she can’t bring herself to care.

“How may I assist?”

It thinks for a moment. And then It gets an idea.

* * *

Hallownest is in worse shape than the Pale King expected. He has also apparently been gone for much longer than he thought--most of the bugs he passes do not recognize him. And yet, there is still a certain aura about him that makes the bugs he passes stop and stare and then look away, for he has always been too bright for many to witness. Those who are old enough to know of him, or who have seen his idols and sigils and signs, drop prone before him as if no time has passed at all.

These bugs, as deteriorated as they are, still recognize their god when they see him.

Those who he blesses with his questions tell him what he already knows, of the Infection that swept through the dreams of Hallownest and dragged many down into madness. But they also speak of something new; a rallying of those left, a rebuilding of the kingdom, perhaps not back to its former glory, but to a state that is once again recognizable as a living place. 

They speak of a new god, one of infinite wisdom and infinite darkness, an omnipotent deity residing in every shadowy corner of the world, who still deigns to offer them guidance on restoring their world. One younger bug even shows the King a crudely-made idol to this god; an onyx creature with eight white eyes and a thousand tendrils twisting out of its amorphous mass of a body. The King knows immediately that this is something born of the Void, a consequence of the Radiance being destroyed rather than contained, a result of the imbalance between the light and the darkness.

The Void has clearly forgotten its place. It seems _he_ will need to be the light to force it back in line, this time.

The only thing that truly surprises him is when the bugs tell him of the priestess carrying out the will of this so-called ‘Shade Lord’, acting as a liaison between it and the lighter world. He has not spared thought for the Beast’s daughter in quite some time, and had never seen her grown, but the descriptions of the priestess matches perfectly.

Perhaps he can negotiate with her, set her straight and enlist her aid in banishing this nuisance. She is of his own flesh and blood, after all. She rightly belongs to him. She should follow his light above all.

She’s simply become lost without him, just as these other bugs have.

* * *

“...I believe it is safe to assume It sent you?”

The Hollow Knight nods, rain dripping off of their horns in a rather pitiful manner as they stand hunched outside of the doorway to what was once the Watcher’s Spire. Their arm has grown back, but Hornet doubts that the crack above their eye will ever heal, and they refuse to be parted with their ratty old cloak and rusted nail despite her offers to replace both. They also seem to have refused the call of their siblings, and will not join the Shade Lord’s collective consciousness, despite Hornet knowing that It wants them to and them doing little other than wandering at the edges of the kingdom away from everyone. She suspects it’s because they don’t think they deserve it, which she finds preposterous. But it is helpful having them around, and in the end, she supposes they’re just as stubborn as their littler sibling once was.

Hornet heaves a sigh and steps aside, gesturing for Hollow to come in out of the rain (their cloak can’t take much more water damage, she’s sure of it, the fraying fabric and exposed thread makes her irritated just looking at it). They duck a bit more so their horns don’t clip the doorframe _(again),_ and she leads them onto the elevator. The ride up is fairly long, and the two spend a fair bit of it in silence--Hornet gets the feeling that Hollow would not be one for words even if they could speak.

It is, of course, Hornet who has to break the silence. “It said It could not manifest Itself near him unless his Wyrmlight is dimmed significantly. I assume that is why you are here.”

Hollow nods, shoulders slumped, and looks off towards the window, giving off the air of being absolutely miserable.

Hornet clasps her hands in front of her, tilting her head. “...Are you sure you can do this?”

There’s a long pause before the next nod, and it’s much slower, more hesitant.

Hornet considers her words. “...There...was love lost between you two?”

She thinks she’s said the wrong thing, as they just stare out the window for a long while, utterly still, giving no indication that they’ve even heard her.

And then they take their nail from their back, planting it in the floor of the elevator and gripping it with both hands, so tightly that Hornet can see wisps of Void escaping from where the hilt cuts into their shell. They nod once more, though it’s a halting, jerky motion.

Hornet asks nothing more.

**Author's Note:**

> So basically after this Hornet and Hollow were going to run into the Pale King, and Hornet and him were going to trade barbs for a while before her and Hollow beat the shit out of him and Hollow ensnared him in Void to dampen his light enough for the Shade Lord to approach.
> 
> And after that, oh boy. Hell hath no fury like a million Shades scorned. It would not have been pretty.


End file.
